Osho and the Indian Consciousness

They say a prophet is never accepted in his own country

and this certainly seemed to be the case when Osho was alive. I remember suddenly being recruited as a guard in Pune one,  when the police seemed to want to come into one of the ashram properties, given a sort of long stick, and told to show my bicceps…. I thought my God what have I got into here, this is not my battle…  Just previously some right wing Indian nationalist had thrown a knife at Osho in discourse, but he never felt the weight of much legal process.

The only time I ever felt really comfortable in India myself, outside of sannyas enclaves,  was when I had an Indian sannyasin  girlfriend, then shopkeepers, public officials, train clerks, etc seemed to want to trip over us to please.

But now Osho is not there to challenge a caste ridden society and its corruption we find that the library of the Indian parliament congress has established a separate Osho collection, an honour only held by one other, Mahatma Ghandi.  Furthermore, The Times of India named Osho as one the 10 most influential Indians of the 20th century.

Maybe our Indian sannyasin brothers and sisters would care to comment?

 Parmartha

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62 Responses to Osho and the Indian Consciousness

  1. frank says:

    that`s all well and good,but he`ll really only be up there with gandhi when they start putting his one-liners up on boards at railway stations…

  2. dharmen says:

    The knife throwing incident, according to Avibha ( Kate Strelley) in her book, The Ultimate Game, was a setup, she says “Bhagwan remained seated calmly through the incident…. Actually, his ability to sit without flinching through a potentially fatal attack came from the fact that he knew it was a set-up. The guy was paid to do it. … The incident served to increase fear for Bhagwan’s safety and devotion to him.” So if true, that long stick you had to carry was probably somebody’s sense of theatre.

    • Arpana says:

      I read that.
      They talked about getting enlightened as if it was a promotion.
      As if they were part of a firm, hallways discussing, when they would get promoted, who would promoted next.
      Ambitious for promotion.

      Are you Dhanam or Now.
      Tell me who you are.

    • alokjohn says:

      Does avibha give a source in her book for her assertion that the knife throwing incident was a setup?

      • Arpana says:

        Gossip. She was a gossip. Repeated everything she heard as if it was real.
        Found the book interesting. She seemed privy to lots of gossip. Buds with Sheela and others.

      • dharmen says:

        No, she seems to be assuming that her position inside the office, working alongside the ashram ‘elite’ makes her credible. The quote’s from p. 215 of the book.

        • Parmartha says:

          I agree with Alok. As far as I know this was a bunch of tittle tattle from the Sheela stable.
          And typical of their covert put downs of Osho.
          I prefer Lokesh’s comment about Osho’s reaction to the 1976 Italian attack…. Osho’s reaction seems to be exactly the same as the Indian right wing attack.
          There was definitely at that time a ground swell of opposition from the right wing in India against Osho. I have seen no other account that agrees with Aviba’s.

          • dharmen says:

            What covert put downs? They must have been so covert nobody knows about them. Sheela was in love with Osho, she may have been very jealous of anyone near him but at least until the end of the ranch she was not putting him down. Even after the ranch, the worst I have heard her say is, at times he was childish but in the same sentence she would also say he was a genius.

          • dharmen says:

            It is likely that Osho wouldn’t have flinched anyway, even if it was real. Arriva probably has it wrong in attributing this to him knowing it was going to happen, but I think its less likely that she has the rest of the story is wrong .

            • Parmartha says:

              Sheela repeatedly referred to Osho publicly as that old “gas bag” when she was bored of him speaking, and by way of a put down about his use of nitrous. This was covert in the sense that the average communard did not know AT THE TIME she was saying such things, but later it emerged from insiders she was verbally abusive in this way. Her whole psychology was that indeed of a lover who wants to mould the beloved into what she wanted, her breakdown occured when she realised that this was totally impossible.

            • Parmartha says:

              I think it is totally preposterous that Osho or those close to him “knew” that an attack on him was about to take place.

              • dharmen says:

                Why make this story up? What purpose does it serve?
                This comes out years after the event, she is only repeating what she heard. If the attack was real would anyone at the time be saying we paid the guy to do it?

                • Arpana says:

                  Chinese whispers!!!

                • frank says:

                  the story could have served this purpose….
                  sheela would have told ariba that story in order to impress her that whatever happened around bhagwan,sheela knew about and controlled.

                  and abiva bought it.

                  plus,she may have watched the movie
                  “velvet goldmine” where a glamrock star engineers a plot whereby he is shot on stage,then becomes a recluse….

  3. lokesh says:

    They say a prophet is never accepted in his own country. That old saying might be true, but was Osho a prophet? The word his its roots in someone being a spokesman for the gods. Times have moved on and the one god idea has caught on big time. So was Osho a spokesman for God? Sounds almost biblical and the old boy was not too hot on the Bible. I find such words as ‘prophet’ anachronistic, really not in tune with modern times. The prophet is still the byword in Islam, but who needs Islam? Many people it would seem. It being the fastest growing religion on the planet. Obviously many need something like that to believe in. Good luck to them. Belief and doubt are two aspects of the same coin. No prizes for guessing who said that.
    The knife throwing incident has been well covered. Therefore I’ll tell you about the shoe throwing incident, which was definitely a spontaneous event.
    Cut a long story short. I was on Osho’s back porch one eventing attending darshan, circa 76, when this wild Italian woman threw a shoe at him. It was quite a heavy piece of footwear, thrown from close range. Osho moved his head slightly and the projectile flew by his face. It went on to hit Laxmi in the chest. Osho did not blink and I was sitting right in front him to obseve this. Shiva and the growlers got hold of the Italian and carted her off into the garden, kicking, screaming and spitting as it happened. Osho carried on as if it were all in a guru’s daily routine, which in a way it was at the time.

  4. frank says:

    italian women,eh?
    i went out with one like that,too.
    i could have done with a bunch of bodyguards,meself…

    serious respect to the chief for his sang-froid,tho`..

  5. Preetam says:

    An achieved Enlightenment does not exist for the Hermetic slavery world dictatorship, also not in India. The accepted instance of that minority is “God”. An Enlightened being will not accepted (before dead) by that Lobby if he is not inserted by that Structure, for their use. Basically, is Enlightenment a Rebellion against the minority which destroys natural freedom of Human by their lies.

  6. bodhi vartan says:

    I very much feel that there will be a split between the Western Osho and the Eastern Osho, as it was in His life. I have even heard of recent (Indian) biographies which exclude the USA period.

    As I watch some of the Rajneeshpuram videos, I often see this little Indian surrounded by white people which brings up the question, as to who was manipulating who? We probably seduced Him, kidnapped Him, and our actions put Him in prison. The present day Indians are going to do with Osho whatever they do with their ‘saints’, and we are going to do an O5HO.2

    I actually find it fascinating and the subject of much contemplation that He went silent during the USA period.

    Vartan

    PS Great site guys. I have only recently found it and I am in process of plowing through it. It looks like you’ve already spoken about all the interesting subjects ages ago, tho. Hehe.

    • frank says:

      i visited the main mormon temple in salt lake city once.
      on the walls of the temple they have many paintings of jesus christ.
      he always appears depicted as a pale-faced guy with blonde hair cut in a short-back-and-sides!

      its only a matter of time before osho appears with blus skin on calendars on chaishop walls in india sitting on a throne,suurounded by gold coins and an om sign coming out of his palms….
      “greetings from sri sri osho aggregates ltd,hypothecated to bhagwan osho bank corp.pune”

      and in the west?
      meet “osho,(not-really)indian mystic, and populariser of sigmund freuds psychological techniques..”

  7. Parmartha says:

    The string alludes to Kate Strelley… and her text “The Ultimate Game”.
    Please bear in mind that Kate Strelley was a personal assistant of Sheela, and she was writing between 85 and 87, midst what must have been the personal implosion of her world when the Ranch collapsed in the fall of 1985.
    Strelley became involved with sannyas as a troubled youngster of 15. While in a drug treatment centre for heroin addiction, she fell in love with her psychiatrist, who broke every ethical rule by sneaking her out to spend a weekend in his commune. She followed him to Poona and later became an “insider”, and possibly because of her vulnerability and simple faith was selected by Sheela for those duties of obedience which those from such backgrounds, sadly, seem to be prone.
    The Sheela version of the knife throwing is a typical put down, that the non meditating Sheela liked to put about re Osho. Given the clear political background at the time it does not seem to be some kind of contrived incident, in fact the attack was very consistent with the politcial background of local Poona politcians, etc at the time, and the extreme right wing party to which the potential assassin belonged.

    • dharmen says:

      I think its possible that the political climate at that time was the reason why such a scheme would be drawn up, it gave the excuse to give big sticks to the guards, in much the same way in Rajneeshpuram, guns were a statement that we were not a push over.

  8. sannyasnews says:

    For the record this period which was circa 1980 contained a number of incidents which were seen as a political attack by Hindu extremists on the ashram. For example apart from the Hindu extremist throwing a knife at Osho there was a firebomb shortly afterwards. It blew up part of the ashram book depot. Then shortly after that again there was another bomb which went off outside the ashram medical centre blowing up a row of bicycles.
    SN has an old cutting from the Poona Herald, 1980, which is not to light at the moment that describes a “march” by Hindu extremists on the ashram. When we can find it we will scan and post.

    • dharmen says:

      “Many incidents of violence against Rajneesh followers were reported in the final days in Poona. These included a fire at the new commune in Saswat and in their book depository, an explosion in the health center, and a number of personal assaults. Bhagwan argued that the violence stemmed only from religious persecution, and it is clear that some Hindus were indeed hostile. Joshi, who handled some press matters for the Ashram at the time, attributed the violence to “Jain fanatics” who were engaging in religious persecution “because they know he [Bhagwan] is revealing the: truth.” Such statements in the press brought threats to Joshi himself …. While granting that sannyasins were unpopular, Milne’s interpretation of some of the fires and confrontations is less kind. He points to insurance collected on the book depository fire and to removal of all English language books from it shortly before the fires (1983: 186). He also argues that some of the confrontations were produced by goading others in order to allow Rejneesh to claim religious persecution.”
      From Charisma and Control in Rajneeshpuram by Lewis F Carter

      • Parmartha says:

        Guess we were both there 80/81? My genuine impression was at that time there were Hindu fanatics in Poona and nationally who were very upset by Osho, and also as I remember by the “behaviour” of ordinary snnyasins in Pune streets, like kissing, etc. The Poona Herald often reported some Hindu meeting in which Osho was vilified, etc. So it makes solid common sense to associate the attack on Osho and ashram property with these extremists, and this view has always been the prevalent common sense view.
        Wasn’t that your impression,? The guy who threw the knife was certainly identified as a Hindu fanatic at the time, and a member of a particular faction, and someone who had spoken and written against Osho and the ashram. So it wasn’t some jerk who Sheela picked up at a fair and paid some money to to simulate an attack on Osho. The political background was clearly there, and had been for sometime.
        I know that the cluster of things that happened, like the book depository bomb, etc for whatever reason have been said by just a few to have been somehow self-inflicted, but what would be the point of that?
        The authors of such views are all subject to poor mental health.
        I’m not calling on my experience of sannyas here, but general life experience and 15 years working with the mentally ill. With that experience one is quick to pick up on patterns of paranoid and delusional thinking, and also the sort of “exaggerations” and fantasies that arise in the disturbed. Sheela, Aviba, Shiva and others all present recognizably in that way, if one has worked for a lengthy time in the mental health field.

        • frank says:

          parmartha,
          as someone working in the mental health field(sounds like a venue at the glastonbury festival),
          what would be your general diagnosis of someone you met in that field who had done a lot of drugs and who tried to convince you that he was being attacked by black magicians?

  9. Shantam Prem says:

    A New Guru in town hell-bent on Spoiling the spiritual Heritage with his theory of Sex to superconsciusness and some fanatic from Majority Community does is to throw a knife. I Wonder whether India was that Backward at that time unaware about AK 47 or Osho was Not that Important?

  10. shantam prem says:

    Those who will die with shame with the idea of becoming follower of a spiritual master feel No shame in becoming follower of some or many entertainer´s tweeties!
    Somewhere we are living in a technological advance but emotionally primitive world.

  11. Parmartha says:

    This is the wikipedia entry re the assasination attempt:
    In May 1980, during one of Osho’s discourses, an attempt on his life was made by Vilas Tupe, a young Hindu fundamentalist. Tupe claims that he undertook the attack, because he believed Osho to be an agent of the CIA.
    Clearly another madman.

    • alokjohn says:

      Tupe probably meant that he thought Osho was introducing American values to India.
      I am reluctant to use a discriminatory word such as “madman.”

      • Parmartha says:

        Hi Alok,
        would you think the use of the word mad was discriminatory in relation to Hitler or Stalin?
        For me the millions that followed them, and yes worshipped them, were also mad. Personally I think it is basically the bottom line human condition. Of course particularly in these examples there is no self-recognition of this at all, have you ever tried talking to an old nazi….

        • Preetam says:

          Whom the Billions are worshipping right now? Isn’t it the same system of repression and murder? In analogous manner all along History and now with all the technologies, is it even worse. Try to talk to the young nazi (white power). Behind hides the same scheme, it agitates and cleaves Humanity against it self.

        • alokjohn says:

          Hi,
          Well I am a bit down on the use of the word mad because it insults people with psychiatric disorders.
          The word spastic is not used any more because it became a term of abuse against physically disabled people. I think the same should happen with “mad.”
          I sometimes read that “psychiatric professionals” use the word “mad”. I do not approve of this. The medical terms should be used : schizophrenic, depressed, autistic, bipolar etc.

          As to Hitler and Stalin, I would not use the word mad. You do not get to be a leader of a country without considerable intelligence and good overall “functioning.” I do not think historians have attributed serious mental illness to either of them. Perhaps evil is a better word for them and their followers.

          • Arpana says:

            “Who in the rainbow can draw the line where the violet tint ends and the orange tint begins? Distinctly we see the difference of the colors, but where exactly does the one first blendingly enter into the other? So with sanity and insanity.”

            —Herman Melville, Billy Budd

          • Parmartha says:

            Yes Alok,
            I am sympathetic to your view here. I can see a word such as mad can be discriminatory. Also I can just about see that Tupe was anti American, and like other fundamentalists from Hinduism and Islam were just plainly that, and he saw Osho as being a friend of American values…. interesting in terms of what happened to Osho in America though?!
            I dont agree with your general view of psychiatric diagnoses as an aspect of being dysfunctional in some way. I would still consider Stalin a paranoid schizophrenic but clearly fully functional.
            Take St Joan for example or St Paul, both of whom heard voices and would in conventional psychiatry be considered schizophrenic. But no greater organiser than St Paul ever existed, and as a military inspiration no greater leader than St Joan.

            • frank says:

              “conventional psychiatry”,eh?
              i think the contributors here on sn probably wouldnt get along too fine in a cosy heart-to-heart with your average conventional psychiatrist….what with having a narcissistic,delusionary guru who claimed to be “the messiah america was waiting for” and all…..

              those psychiatrists main reason for making those “diagnoses” is just so they can flog some more units for the pharmaceutical companies,isn`t it?

  12. Parmartha says:

    In 1987 Osho elaborated a little about Poona and Hindu fundamentalists:,
    he said,
    “This city is condemned, because this city murdered Mahatma Gandhi, this city tried to murder me…and they are trying to tell me that I am controversial and dangerous. They are not even ashamed. Mahatma Gandhi was murdered by the same group of people who have tried to assassinate me. For centuries to come, Poona will be remembered as a city of murderers.”

  13. Parmartha says:

    Here’s a press cutting from 1987, the same man was again threatening Osho.

    “Vilas Tupe, leader of the militant United Hindu Movement, has threatened to storm the commune. “One day I am going to get Rajneesh – just wait,” said Tupe, 31, who runs a martial arts school in Pune.

  14. Lokesh says:

    Perhaps the title for this thread would have been more appropriate had it been ‘Osho and the Indian Unconscious’.

  15. Parmartha says:

    Here’s some more unconsicousness (from 2009) in this press report about Vilas Tupe’s Brahmanical Suicide Squads. (Really does this sound like the sort of man who would have thrown a knife at Osho for a few hundred rupees)

    “Young Indian officers with both military and Hindu terrorist organizations have caused a cancer to the military establishment in India. The Brahminical suicide squad was set up at Pune in 2000. While the organisation is in tatters today, its founder and self-proclaimed commander-in-chief, Vilas Tupe, is bitter about his failed venture. “My experience of raising Hindu terrorist squads and sending them to Jammu and Kashmir was so bitter that I would like to forget it”, he said. Incidentally, Tupe attempted to attack Osho Rajneesh with a knife in the 1980s because “Rajneesh was a CIA agent”. Talking about his anti-terrorism venture, he said he was inspired to form his outfit after the attack on “innocent” Amarnath pilgrims in 2000. While he was planning to counter terrorism in Punjab in a similar manner, the then Director-General of Punjab Police, Julieo Ribero, had suggested arming villagers and creating gram suraksha dals, Tupe said. We went to Punjab, met Ribero and offered ourselves for these dals.
    “We even received training for three months at the BSF camps, he claimed. However, the initiative failed as the Union home secretary objected to it, Tupe said.

    After he announced the forming of Lashkar-e-Shivba, he received an overwhelming response from nearly 2,500 youths from Sangli, Satara, Kolhapur and Ahmednagar districts. Of these, 150 were shortlisted and trained after which “we left for Jammu to visit terrorist-infested districts”.

    “The plan, however, was aborted after a month as we had no money or political support”.

    Source: http://www.defence.pk/forums/indian-defence/31061-hindu-terrorists-inflitrate-indian-army.html#ixzz25RfVcOqd

    • dharmen says:

      “(Really does this sound like the sort of man who would have thrown a knife at Osho for a few hundred rupees)”

      Have to admit it doesn’t but it does looks like some one was trying to exploit the religious persecution angle. But what do we know? Its all speculation, without first hand reports nothing can really be said. And so far, the first hand reports we know about, all come from the mentally disturbed? If they said something you agreed with, would you then say they had a moment of sanity? I’m not so sure you can make such sweeping statements based on a few paragraphs in a few books.

  16. shantam Prem says:

    Just became curious to ask Parmartha,” What he wants to prove through this little incident by a little chap some Vilas Tupe?
    More than 10 news channels from India i watch daily. Never heard this name in any connection since the 24×7 Tv has arrived. One can imagine, how much hunger is there for any kind of Breaking news.
    From any sensible reason, it is absurd to think that little incident as a mirror image of Indian (un)consciousness.
    But surely this shows much about us, the Osho freaks. World has changed so much in the last 2 decades, but we have no new story in our stock. Dry rivers don´t attract neither ships nor swans.

  17. shantam Prem says:

    http://www.ndtv.com/article/cities/mcdonald-s-first-all-veg-outlet-will-be-near-golden-temple-263030?pfrom=home-otherstories

    People who are in the business of higher food can get a tip from Macdonald, how to do business in the real world. Simply tailor made the products according to local customs and traditions.
    SoSo resort mangers have also tried to do something in the similar lines but with NO MIND.
    They are selling that Osho in Pune which could have some demand in Florida!
    But any way, there is a growing tribe of people like Lokesh who feel, it is below their dignity to buy food from organised sector, they prefer take away from road side stalls near the Pan shops.
    I still remember that India, when best of political and religious mind churning took place near the Pan and Cigratte shops.

  18. shantam Prem says:

    Lokesh, when you are counting my confessions, let me tell one more.
    It is one of my wishes to offer my self for brain mapping when someone thinking himself as Enlightened is wiling to go through the similar process.
    I know, someone who wants to establish himself in this lucrative and feet touching trade will not entertain such idea, but you as a wise man trained at the feet of who is who of spirituality can surely gather the courage.
    You read Nisardata ji Maharaj and Shri Ramana, i watch ndtv and “kindgirls”, let us go for brain mapping for checking our Alpha and Beta!

  19. Teertha says:

    There is an irony in Tupe’s accusation that Osho was a CIA asset, given that Osho himself suspected CIA involvement in the ‘black magic attacks’ on him shortly before his passing. CIA — the new punching boy.

    At any rate, as Frank might joyously agree, the Freudian interpretation is best — Tupe was sexually frustrated and jealous of swamis in robes with hairy, white, big-boned women. He threw his knife at Osho just as he wanted to throw his wang at a Ma. He wanted his cigar to be more than just a cigar.


    The video cannot be shown at the moment. Please try again later.

    • frank says:

      siggy cigardust woulda out-coked and outsmoked any of those wannabe rappers,man…
      he had the solution to all problems,for sure…
      the 7 per cent solution…

      but you`re right, freuds theory definitely nails ol` tupak tupe…
      plus,just look at what happened to the knife…
      he tried to throw it but just flopped straight down on the floor in front of him….
      poor guy.
      the ashram should have paid him a trip to vienna…

      he needed therapy,badly….

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